Gennaio, 2022

Tokes Ojo-Ade is a marketing professional, wife, mother — and successful web creator. Her blog,Tokes’ Take On Style, offers fashion, styling and shopping tips for busy working women.

“As a working mom, I know we all juggle a lot,” says Tokes, who lives in the Washington, D.C. area and works full time in the financial services industry. “Given how time-strapped a lot of us are, we could all use effortless styling and shopping tips along with easy style inspiration,” she says.

Tokes works to keep her blog’s content fresh and engaging, like adding tappableWeb Stories andYouTube videos to the mix.

She also live streams to connect with her fan base more directly. On her biweekly Instagram TV (IGTV) live stream, “Thursday Tips with Tokes,” she shares quick and easy styling tips with her audience — sometimes reaching over 21,000 views. Fans are drawn to Tokes’ warm, personal style, and her take on fashion and beauty to help women feel more confident.

Tokes spoke with us to share a few tips on how to create a successful live stream.

Prepare before you go live

While trial and error is part of the learning process, Tokes says preparation is key to live streaming success. “You have to figure out what the intent is, what the goal is, what you’re trying to do,” Tokes says. “If I’m sharing tips, do I need props? If I’m showing and telling, what are the pieces that I want to share? How long am I going live for? How many outfits can I fit in during that time? Also, I have to anticipate questions that people may have.” She suggests making a list of everything you need for your live stream and reviewing it in advance to avoid any mid-stream glitches.

Tokes also recommends preparing based on the platform you’re using. She says while Instagram is great for quick and spontaneous live streams, her Amazon Live shows require more prep with choosing products to feature that are a good fit for her audience.

Involve your audience and other influencers

Tokes kicks off every live stream with some audience banter, welcoming her viewers by name. Engaging with the audience as soon as she goes live helps them feel like they’re part of the show. “I always ask where people are joining from because you’re bringing them along,” Tokes shares. “It doesn’t feel as much like you’re talking to a screen because there’s that engagement and interaction going on.”

Tokes also features other influencers on her shows as a way to expand her content and build community between their audiences. “I did [a live stream] recently with two plus-sized influencers, and we talked about styling tips for plus-sized women.”

While popular influencer live stream shows have a casual, laid-back feel, successful creators like Tokes put in plenty of prep time. That foundation makes it easier for creators to relax and have fun with their audiences, knowing they’ve mapped everything out in advance.

Want to hear more from Tokes? Watch our full interview on the Google for Creators YouTube channel and check out her Web Story.

Welcome to the latest edition of “My Path to Google,” where we talk to Googlers, interns and alumni about how they got to Google, what their roles are like and even some tips on how to prepare for interviews.

Today’s post is all about Ernesto Gutierrez Gasca — a Partner Development Manager in our Mexico City office — and the obstacles he overcame on his journey to Google.

What’s your role at Google?

As an ISV Partner Development Manager at Google Cloud, I am responsible for opening the ISV (Independent Software Vendors) area in Mexico. Our goal is to help these software vendors use the Google Cloud Platform, and I help them do this. One of the things I really enjoy about this role is that I get to meet and promote so many passionate partners throughout the region.

What’s your typical work day like?

In the morning, I check my schedule to see what adventures await me throughout the day. I then wake up my 4-year-old twins — my motivation and the reason for everything I do. Together, we head to my home office, where they occasionally join in on my meetings throughout the day. These meetings are often with my partners to review our progress and identify challenges. Each partner has a very particular vision of the future and the strategy we need to get there — I learn a lot from them. I also meet with my manager to go over what I’ve learned and the way I think we should move forward. Last, I devote time to closing out pending issues and planning my next day. I spend the rest of my evening in my most important role — having fun and laughing with my twins.

What was your path to this role like?

Since I was a student, I dreamed of working at Google. However, I feared I lacked the professional experience needed to apply, so I didn’t until I received an email from a Google recruiter. During my interviews I focused on just being myself — and I got an offer.

When I joined Google, I became Partner Manager for large agencies in Latin America and was responsible for promoting the use of data driven marketing. I was constantly learning new things. Around this time, I realized that the future is cloud computing, so I decided to make the change to my current role. While I didn’t have much experience with Google Cloud before, I am grateful for the ample opportunity I was given to grow into this role.

What resources did you use to prepare for your interview?

I prepared a lot for my interviews. I started by researching and reading everything I could find about Google’s Marketing Platform until I understood very well where the company was going. I also studied other companies in this space, which gave me a lot of clarity around how the same industry objective can be approached from different perspectives. Once I learned all of this information, I organized my thoughts around my own career. I reread the success stories from what I developed or participated in and I practiced articulating how my focus on innovation could add to Google’s objectives. I also spoke with people who worked in companies similar to Google to measure my knowledge and test answers to possible complex questions. And finally, the support and trust of my family before and after each interview helped me get here.

Any tips for aspiring Googlers?

Be your true self, and don’t be afraid to apply because you feel inadequate. Google looks for people capable of learning and problem-solving over people who have complete technical mastery. After you apply, be sure to prepare for the interview so you are able to confidently speak about yourself and your experiences.

What’s something people might not know about you?

I was born with a cleft lip, a condition that required seven surgeries, years of speech therapy and counseling to cope with the bullying. This condition made it difficult for me to speak publicly and socialize. But my mother challenged me to have big aspirations — she pushed me to dream big regardless.

Today I’m an Ambassador of the Smile Train Foundation, an organization helping children born with cleft palates and lips. I’m committed to inspiring these children that they can achieve any dream they set their minds to. I am extremely grateful for everything I have.

What advice do you have for your past self?

Never be afraid to express when I don’t know, and never try to hide my cleft lip and palate. Acknowledge that if I don’t know how to do something today, I can learn it tomorrow.

I love New Year’s resolutions, and because of the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, I had plenty of time to focus on them. In 2020, I decided I might as well finally train for and run a marathon…and then because, well, I still had the extra hours in 2021, I decided to try to do it again, only faster. I also resolved to give back, so I began fostering dogs (and when you already have two, trust me, it’s a challenge). My husband and I also finished remodeling our basement, turning it into a separate studio apartment.

Honestly, that’s a lot of doing. And as 2022 approaches, I think instead of using any extra time or spare motivation I have to come up with another challenge, maybe it’s time for a New Year’s non-resolution for me — a year where I focus on resting and recharging, instead of on constant doing.

I’m likely not the only one feeling this way. In 2021, search interest in “anxiety” and “therapy” reached all-time highs, as did “how to maintain mental health” and “self care ideas.” And every year, “yoga” and “journaling” spike in January. In 2022, I want to do less and focus on taking care of myself, and here are a few tools I’m going to use to do that.

Rest more

2022 is going to be my year of sleep. The Nest Hub’s new Sleep Sensing will offer a better look at the quality of sleep I’m getting, and already the message I’ve received is: Get more of it. One piece of advice Sleep Sensing has given me based on my sleeping patterns is to try and get less light in my room — and I’m going to try waking up a little less abruptly by using Nest’s Gentle Wake Up feature, which slowly brightens my lights. And in stark comparison to my running goals from the past two years, in 2022 I’m going to try and run…less. Fitbit’s Daily Readiness feature tells me when it’s time for a rest day, a reminder I definitely need. (I blame running endorphins!)

Practice mindfulness

For me, mindfulness and meditation are more difficult than jumping up to physically do something. Search has a quick fix: Search “breathing exercise” and use the one-minute meditation.

Take a solo trip

I tend to over-plan trips — ask my family (there are a variety of Google Sheets dedicated to my vacations). In 2022, I’m not sure I can drop the side hustle of being my own personal travel agent, but I’m going to do the planning for a solo vacay. I like to think of myself as a Google Flights power user, and since I only have myself to think about, I only have to take my calendar into consideration when I set up a price alert for destinations I’m interested in. And I’ll use the Explore feature to select “outdoors” to narrow it down.

Maybe I’ll decide on a low key break, though and just stay home. In 2021, searches for staycation reached an all-time high — if I truly want to “do less,” maybe I’ll consider that option instead…but the year is young, so I have plenty of time to decide.

As a university student, Abigail Annkah fell in love with mathematics, which soon led to her interest in artificial intelligence. After graduating from the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Abigail made it through the competitive process to become an AI resident at Google Research, Accra. After her residency, Google offered her a job and she’s now a research software engineer working on several high-profile projects.

As Google grows its presence in Accra, we spoke to Abigail about the mapping project that motivates her, starting a new job while becoming a mother and the importance of inspiring young girls to enter STEM careers.

How did your science background lead you to Google?

I did my undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Science Statistics at the University of Ghana, finishing with a combined major in Mathematics and Statistics. During the second year of study, I stumbled upon Computational Maths, leading to my first taste of coding. I started taking extra credit courses, which really kickstarted my entry into AI. Then I joined the first cohort of the African Masters of Machine Intelligence program at African Institute for Mathematical Sciences with the support of Google and Facebook. The program intends to bridge the AI education gap in Africa and strengthen the growing data science ecosystem in the region — this was my first exposure to the world of Machine Learning.

I quickly developed an interest in using data-driven approaches to solving pressing societal challenges, leading me to work on biochemical image segmentation for my master’s thesis. I then joined the Google AI center in Ghana as an AI resident and after two years gained a full-time role as a research software engineer. There, I used my expertise in computer vision to help build better image segmentation models that led to significant improvement of Google maps. This project created new possibilities for using improved satellite imagery analysis tools for purposes like disaster response or census planning.

Is there a specific project you’re especially proud to have worked on?

The aforementioned Google maps project — also known as the Open Buildings open-access dataset project — is close to my heart as an African. Open Buildings uses AI to provide a digital footprint of building locations and geometry across most of Africa. Our aim is to map Africa’s built environment using satellite imagery, and I dedicated almost all my residency to contributing to that work.

Cities in Africa aren’t constructed the same as in other parts of the world. For example, AI models in a U.S. city won’t be as useful here but the problem is actually bigger than just one product. Many large-scale digital maps today are usually missing that AI context. It was exciting to see the potential and unanticipated use cases that helped us refine the dataset, and we saw it make an impact on local communities. For example, the data we collected about buildings can also be used to analyze the density of the built landscape for environmental science purposes.

After identifying and adding millions of previously unmapped buildings to our dataset, we decided to open source the dataset, making it available for anyone to download.

How do you hope your work inspires the next generation of young scientists in STEM?

That’s a funny question because sometimes I think I haven’t gone that far in my career — but that’s only because I want to achieve so much more. When I’ve spoken to students they always ask about my journey to Google, especially starting a new role as a new mother. I want them to look at me and think if she did it, then I can do it too! It’s really important to me that my work reaches people so that they in turn can reach out to others when they achieve career success.

I’m very pleased there are more programs today encouraging girls and women to get into STEM. I was fortunate enough to participate in one of these programs early on, and it helped me get where I am today. Currently, the Accra team is launching Mind the Gap in Ghana and I get to interact with young students to inspire them to pursue STEM along with other members of the team.

How did you balance motherhood with your new position at Google?

Having a newborn at home while start my residency was stressful, especially following a difficult pregnancy. I was anxious about how much of myself I could give to my work, but I was able to make valuable contributions to the work and still be a trusted member of the team. When I became a full-time researcher, I thought to myself that if I can succeed as a working mother, then I should have confidence that I had earned this position. I also had a great maternity package and a super supportive team. I had a support system where I could ask colleagues, “How did you get through this? What did you do?” I didn’t have to figure out everything on my own.

Who are your heroes in real life?

I think the younger me is my greatest hero! I’ve had so many amazing people pushing me, but whenever I hit a roadblock, she’s the one who inspires me and reminds me that yes I can.